The introduction of a variety of new communication services and applications in recent years has led to a significant increase in the use of wireless communication services. The resulting increase in wireless traffic has placed significant strains on the capacity of modern communication systems, resulting in failed connection attempts, dropped calls, and other problems for users. Consequently, it has become critical for network designers and operators to optimize the configuration and operation of wireless networks to accommodate high levels of traffic.
Many wireless communication networks are designed to utilize both scheduled data transmissions, in which wireless devices transmit data to a radio access network in scheduled time slots, and random access transmissions, in which wireless devices transmit data to the radio access network at arbitrary, unscheduled times. In such networks, specific transmission resources (e.g., time and frequency resources) may be allocated respectively to these different types of transmissions. Additionally, these different types of transmissions may be used for specific purposes.
For example, in networks that implement the Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication standard, a wireless communication device typically utilizes random access transmissions to initiate radio links with the wireless network (e.g., when the device is turned on, after a handover to a new cell of the wireless network) and uses scheduled transmissions for the transmission of user data once a radio link has been established with the network. As a result, the wireless device's ability to perform certain functions in a particular wireless network may be limited by how transmission resources are allocated in the network to the various types of transmissions.